News organizations complain about being misled by Obama campaign.

Hat tip to Ben Smith at The Politico LINK for obtaining a letter to the Obama campaign from six Washington Bureau Chiefs, including the NBC's late Tim Russert, complaining about being misled by the Obama campaign. The bottom line: reporters paying a lot of money to travel with Obama were misled about him being on the plane with them. "Each of our organizations is reviewing whether we will reimburse the campaign for last night's flight," the letter said.

Click below for the letter....

News organizations complain about access to Obama

The Times mentioned today a letter from Washington bureau chiefs of six leading news organizations to the Obama campaign, complaining about access about about being deceived by campaign aides.

I've obtained a copy of the letter, whose signatories include AP's Ron Fournier and the late Tim Russert of NBC. It was sent June 6, after Obama flew his press corps to Chicago and stayed behind to meet Clinton. The news organizations, in the letter, threaten to withhold payment for the flight.

More broadly, the organizations complain that Obama offers less access to the press even than President Bush, keeping even a single pool reporter out of his security bubble. He also answers relatively few questions, and his agreement to admit reporters to fundraisers remains partial: Last night, the pool reporter, the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut reported that she was confined to a Kennedy poolhouse while Obama talked to donors.

Here's the letter:

To: David Plouffe and Robert Gibbs

There are many ways in a campaign to control your message and conduct private meetings that do not involve deceiving the press corps. Last night, the press corps traveling with Senator Obama was misled, and was also flown to Chicago without the Senator. The Washington bureau chiefs of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, and the Associated Press strongly protest the events of last night.

To review, the press corps was told the Senator would be in the motorcade from Bristol to the airport. He was not. Then, the press corps was told the Senator would actually join them at the airport. He did
not. When pressed repeatedly, Robert Gibbs and other press aides insisted the Senator was on his way to the airport. He was not. When the campaign plane took off without the candidate, there were loud protests from the press corps because we were not given the option of staying in Washington. We do not commit to fly on charters to fly with press aides; we make that commitment to fly with the candidate. Each of our organizations is reviewing whether we will reimburse the campaign for last night's flight.

The decision to mislead reporters is a troubling one. We hope this does not presage a relationship with the Obama campaign that is not based on a mutual respect for the truth. Our joint mission is to cover the
candidate on behalf of our millions of worldwide viewers and readers. Those individuals expect truthful and fair coverage from us. Your campaign expects nothing short of that from us as well. Surely we should expect the same from you. We sincerely hope we can expect a relationship based on mutual trust in the coming months of coverage.

Going forward, we know from experience that covering a presidential campaign requires that some representatives of the press corps be with, or near, the Senator at all times as part of the "security package," just as the White House press corps is with the president. There may be times when the Senator needs to address the press corps about unexpected and dramatic news events, and there may be times when history demands the press corps be in close proximity to the Senator. This is standard
operating procedure for the President of the United States, a job to which he aspires, and for presumptive nominees.

We hope to work closely with you on these and other coverage issues throughout the campaign.
ABC News Robin Sproul
AP Ron Fournier
CBS News Chris Isham
CNN David Bohrman
Fox News Brian Wilson
NBC News Tim Russert

I can't blame the Senator. No one wants to be trapped with snakes from corporate media 30000 feet up at more the 500mph.

I'm sure Obama would rather enter the nineth ring of hell wearing oil soaked polyester than suffer being enclosed onbaord a jet with an obnoxious, overbearing, self-absorbed herd of corporate media butt4brains pundits who are just delusional enough to find their pretending to be journalists acceptable reporting practice.

The news media delivered Obama on a PLATTER to us.
They denied us Kucinich, Edwards, and finally Clinton.
And NOW they complain?
All this camelot crap!
I won't vote Republican--but this news media stuff is ridiculous.

Worse than the mau-mauing (are you a racist?) of former Obama supporters who then worked for other candidates is the MAOISM of people who support the candidate (gonna put up a McCAIN SIGN? a Bob Barr sign?).
You can't say ANYTHING about the guy or his wife--and this is DANGEROUS, folks.
If you felt Bill Clinton was too accomodating--watch out for the Obama 'accomodation' --and we're seeing it already:
Flying the press corps around to keep the media from the candidate (outrageous);
Confining a pool reporter to a KENNEDY POOL HOUSE (was that where the rum used to be processed or where Kopecne was discussed?);
EXCLUDING a scarfed muslim woman from a future ad video/speech event in Detroit.
How do we pressure Obama to stay 'liberal' if "LIBERALS" attack us when we voice concern or even outright anger at how the CAMPAIGN is being conducted?
And DON"T say go vote independent cuz that's a wasted vote. We need the instant run off second choice ballot or else we're all in a bigger pile of doody.
I'll vote for the guy this time---and then start working on building a 3rd party to pressure the dems to the left and the repubs toward sanity.
It just would be NICE if our candidate and his supporters would lighten the heck up.

SCAM--we expect poor behaviour out of a criminal enterprise that stole the white house twice.
It is our DUTY to pressure our candidate to do BETTER so that the right people can be elected by such a wide margin that it ain'ta gonna be possible for them to STEAL the election again.

I don't know what Obama is so afraid of it's not like the press asks him any real question. When the press does ask him serious questions and Obama does his dance of lies, the press lets him get away with it. Ask Obama about his friend Alsammarae and what he's up to these days, I'm sure Obamas very busy but I'm also sure he knows.

He lies all day long and the press says nothing what about his campanign promise for federal campaign financing. He won't meet with McCain but he'll meet with humas, Obama said,"a meeting with McCain would not be fruitfull". BUT a meeting with Humas would be "fruitfull". He only has his promises to run on and he just broke one....

Obama's actions are hardly shocking. This is a man who lied over and over again about Reverend Wright. This is a man who can't tell the truth about his religion or his citizenship. This is a man who is belt-buckle deep in cahoots with dirty money. This is a man who has no qualms about child murder. With all that in evidence, the press is surprised that the moralless liberal is lying to them? Shocker of the century, guys! And what's so bad about lying, anyways? You guys have been deceiving the American people for years.

Folks, if you want to be taken seriously, you need to drop the whole "GWB stole elections" garbage. The only way Gore could have maybe won Florida is if he had asked for a statewide recount, which he didn't, and even that is a "might". This is fact. Allv otes were counted numerous ways, and the only chance Gore might have had a shot was to do what he didn't do. FACT.

A vote-by-vote review of untallied ballots in the 2000 Florida presidential election indicates George W. Bush would have narrowly prevailed in the partial recounts sought by Al Gore, but Gore might have reversed the outcome - by the barest of margins - had he pursued and gained a complete statewide recount.

The new data, compiled by The Associated Press and seven other news organizations, also suggested that Gore followed a legal strategy after Election Day that would have led to his defeat even if it had not been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gore sought a recount of a relatively small portion of the state's disputed ballots while the review indicates his only chance lay in a course he advocated publicly but did not pursue in court - a full statewide recount of all Florida's untallied votes.

ALL OF YOU GUYS WHO ARE WITH MCCAIN, GO INVEST IN THE KLEENEX
INDUSTRY, BECAUSE AS MUCH AS YOU CRY AND COMPLAIN, YOU GUYS WOULD
BE RICH BY NOW, OOPS, YOU ALREADY ARE!
IT'S EASY TO COMPLAIN WHEN YOU HAVE MONEY, NOW ASK THE TRUCKER
HOW HE FEELS, ASK THE TAXI DRIVER HOW HE FEELS, ASK THE PERSON
WHO HAS TO WORK TWO AND THREE JOBS JUST TO MAKE ENDS MEET!
SEE YOU GUYS DON'T HAVE MUCH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT, YOU'RE RICH!

The bloom is off the rose. The more people learn about what a smarmy two faced lying parasite Obama is the less they will be deluded into voting for him. November is a long time away, and I don't see how Obama is going to survive the next 4 1/2 months even with most of the media in the tank for him.

HE IS GOING TO WIN THE ELECTION, NOT JUST BE IN SOME SURVIVOR
MODE, YOU GUYS CAN ATTACK ALL YOU WANT, THIS IS A SPECIAL SITUATION AND ALL THE NAYSAYERS IN THE WORLD CAN'T STOP BARACK
OBAMA FROM BEING PRESIDENT!
JOHN MCCAIN KNOWS IT, THE GOP KNOWS IT, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTERS
KNOW IT, REAGAN DEMOCRATS KNOW IT, BARACK OBAMA IS THE BETTER OF
THE TWO CANDIDATES!
BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT BEFORE GAS HITS 6 BUCKS A GALLON!